The present invention relates generally to an electrical connector and, more particularly, to a right angle electrical connector.
In a typical right angle connector the tails of the contacts that extend from the rear of the connector body are bent at right angles, so that the ends of the tails extend downwardly for engagement in plated-through holes in a printed circuit board on which the connector is mounted. Because of the long length of the right angle bent contact tails, it is difficult to maintain the ends of the tails in precise position for insertion into the plated-through holes. To facilitate the insertion of the vertically-extending legs of the tails into the holes, typically a flat alignment plate containing rows of holes corresponding to the pattern of the vertical legs of the contact tails is pushed upwardly over the tails. This assembly procedure requires an initial precise positioning of the vertical legs of the tails to allow the alignment plate to be mounted thereon. Generally, right angle electrical connectors contain no more than three or four rows of contacts. A greater density of contacts in the connector would make mounting of the alignment plate thereon difficult, if not impractical.
It is, therefore, one object of the present invention to provide a right angle electrical connector that does not require the use of right angle bent contact tails.
It is another object of the invention to provide an adapter for a connector having conventional straight contacts to convert such connector into a right angle connector.